China condemned the Dalai Lama for issuing appeals and statements recently on the still sporadically ongoing disturbances in Tibet, saying they were aimed to trigger more unrest. “The ‘appeals’ and ‘statements’ show that the Dalai Lama continued to drum up the so-called ‘Greater Tibet’ region and ‘high autonomy’, and still sticked (sic) to the ‘Tibetan independence’, China’s official Xinhua news agency Apr 9 quoted Qiangba Puncog, Chairman of Tibet Autonomous Region government as saying. He has said the statements attempted to stir up hostility between ethnic groups in Tibet and internationalize the so-called “Tibet issue”.

The exile Tibetan leader, it may be recalled, had issued a series of appeals and statements which he said were designed to calm the situation in Tibet and pacify protest actions in exile. He even threatened, repeatedly, to resign if the violence in Tibet continued. Qiangba indicated that he wanted the Dalai Lama to admit that rioters had committed crimes in Lhasa and that his alleged clique was fully responsible for the unrest.